Update:Honeycomb and Casper are doing great! Honeycomb is his usually macho/grumpy self, hating on the filter and flaring. Casper acts like a little dog, and has marbled into an almost completely black betta. In the 10 gallon i added this beautiful jade buddha statue, along with 2 meters:

-One that measures LIVE free ammonia and free ammonia spikes
-Two, a pH LIVE measure-meter that is supposed to detect pH spikes,etc.

My Free ammonia has remained at a constant 0ppm, but the pH has remained at this deep color red, not present on the color chart. I read some reviews online and other users are having the same issue.

I got these to help me as a visual reprentation need to know when to change the water, how much, if it spiked, etc.

Update 2:
I have got and OK on getting the peppered cories! My petsmart seems to be the only one that carries them, and everytime im there getting tortoise supplies i check them out. The cories are always in great conditon and very lively!
I was going to get 3 with twice weekly water changes.

The problem:As many of you know, i have a high pH of 7.8-8.2 and somewhat akaline water. I have natural sand, a betta(obviously), a top fin HOB filter and a submersible heater. Questions:
Have any of you kept cories in these conditions?
Have they lived happily?
Also, what do feed them? Pellets? Wafers?

The biggest Q of all(bear with me, here)
-I want to make sure they ARE acclimated before i introduce them to the tank, so here's what i was thinking:
-DRIP-LINE METHOD
1)dump fish into large 5 gallon bucket(will it be too shallow?)
2) tie knot in airline tubing and drain from tank
3)adjust flow by tightening or loosening knot

Is this even correct?
Do i have to buy the tubing?

Also, i am going to call my local Petsmart today to ask them what their pH in these tanks are (if they even know LOL) , but last time i checked with them, they didnt know(of course). But, i think that the water chemistry would be the same if the didnt add anything because they are so close to my house, am i correct?

YOU MADE IT THROUGH!
Congrats, this post is over LOL!
Thanks for all the help everybody, and new pics coming soon!

I have high PH and so does the Petco where I got some of my fish. This area has high PH we have to live with it. I have 3 peppered cories and they are doing fine. Except they only show themselves at night with the lights out I feed them 1 sinking wafer each every night and they eat the leftovers from the sorority girls.

I don't think you need to acclimate them any differently than any other fish, but I would QT them for a week or so. The last cory I got from Petco died quickly while the other 3 purchased much earlier did just fine.

You just never know with fish from the big box pet stores. The bettas I have bought from Petco did great, all of them, but the 8 neons and that cory lasted about a week

I have high PH and so does the Petco where I got some of my fish. This area has high PH we have to live with it. I have 3 peppered cories and they are doing fine. Except they only show themselves at night with the lights out I feed them 1 sinking wafer each every night and they eat the leftovers from the sorority girls.

I don't think you need to acclimate them any differently than any other fish, but I would QT them for a week or so. The last cory I got from Petco died quickly while the other 3 purchased much earlier did just fine.

You just never know with fish from the big box pet stores. The bettas I have bought from Petco did great, all of them, but the 8 neons and that cory lasted about a week

hey guys, i have been thinking, should i get 1 albino and 1 peppered to start so i can see which kind adapts to my water chemistry better? Also, should i get 2 or 3 cories? I do a 25% water change once a week...